Select Page

Category: English

DISCOVER SOME OF OUR ENGLISH ROAD SCHOOLING HIGHLIGHTS…..

Roadschooling our children each week has allowed us to seek out new travel/education or adventure opportunities across Europe. So if you’re considering planning your own road trip or just adding something educational to an extended family holiday, we hope it gives offers ideas for educational family fun across Europe.

English

Latest
  • Education
  • English
  • Geography
  • History

SO WHY DO WE BELIEVE IT IS IMPORTANT?

English is at the heart of our culture and literacy skills are crucial to learning for all other subjects. Literacy does not just give us access to knowledge of facts or skills it is the ability to read, view, write, design, speak and listen in a way that allows us to communicate effectively. The power of literacy lies not just in the ability to read and write, but in our capacity to apply these skills to effectively connect and interpret the world in which we live.
“Reading takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”   - Hazel Rochman

WHAT ARE WE HOPING TO ACHIEVE?

Ensuring our children gain the functional literacy skills to make their way in the modern world whilst encouraging a love of reading and creative writing to express their personality, thoughts & ideas
“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations--something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.”   - Katherine Patterson

SO HOW DO WE APPROACH IT?

Differing from the other subjects taught, we have prioritised the learning of literacy skills, mathematics and languages on a daily basis. Both girls complete a series of daily spelling exercise via the app (ReadingEgg) and are encouraged to write a daily entry into their diary (supported with prints from our useful Canon Selphy printer). Further literacy opportunities are mixed with IT skills as both girls develop their website http://lottieandlibbyadventure.weebly.com . To try and ensure it doesn't become too 'work specific' both girls are encouraged to use 'Word Chums' as a means of communicating with family, friends back home but also to further reinforce their spelling ability. (Further workbooks are taken to to support individual areas that sometimes require extra efforts) ​So the below are just a small selection of how we have linked our homeschooling to English topics
  • CLICK HERE - Online series of downloadable resources for improving literacy skills
  • CLICK HERE- For those of you on twitter, this is worth a look for who to follow for tips, resources and views
  • CLICK HERE - Links to National Curriculum teaching resources / schemes of work
  • CLICK HERE - For those that love a good app, here's some literacy based apps for you to look at for inspiration
  • CLICK HERE - Useful 5mins challenges website, can be easy way to break up topics
  • CLICK HERE - Great school based collection of Literacy resources
  • CLICK HERE - Good ideas about making literacy come alive through multimedia presentation (like our girls Video Blogs)
Loading
 
TOPIC ​COVERED​
ACTIVITY ​(click for blog)
LEARNING ​FOCUS
LOCATION
POETRY - ADVERBIAL PHRASES
Popcorn Poetry makes poetry fun... 
  • Using Aunty Louisa's 'Popcorn Poetry' methods - Using a big jar, scrunch up lots of stick it notes to resemble popcorn - each stick it note contained a starter phrases or adverbial / prepositional phrases
  • Pick at random, 5 different places we've visited and create poems - either simple acrostic poems or limericks. Perhaps extending into further types of poem if time allowed
Romsey, Hampshire
GRAMMAR - PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
A full day of work...
  • Using information from our previous work, we extended the concept of adverbial phrases and moved both girls into prepositional phrases
  • Again using the medium of poetry, both girls completed a series of poems before trying to use this in their website blog entry
Torre del Sol, Spain
POETRY
Rhyming Poetry about Purple...
  • Using the previous learning on poetry, we challenged both girls to write about colours - in this case 'Purple' was chosen
  • Purple chosen due to our history topic that shows purple to be the colour of choice for kings, religious leaders due to its scarcity
  • Each poem can then be saved and used to compare improvements across the year
Torre del Sol, Spain
WRITING A SHORT STORY
Following the Enid Blyton Trail to Corfe Castle / Kirrin Island
  • Visit the superb Corfe Castle National Trust site , both girls were armed with their favourite Enid Blyton ' Famous Five' book
  • Identifying areas of Swanage that she visited both girls started to compile a visual image. They then compared this to the one they had imagined and started to link these together
  • After this visit, they created their own Famous five adventure and wrote it in their Travel Diary, hoping to react it at a later date with their cousins
Core Castle, England
COMPILING A SHORT NEWSPAPER REPORT
Loch Ness Monster
  • Visit the Loch Ness museum with it's detailed sightings, scientific analysis of the validity of any Loch Ness Monster.
  • Evaluate the sources of evidence and write a newspaper piece online
Loch Ness, Scotland
WRITING A DIARY EXTRACT OF LIFE AS A ROMAN CHILD
Roman Settlement / Wall
  • Visit and experience the ruined Roman fort (National Trust), then walk along the wall.
  • Describe how life may have been lived years ago and write a short diary extract for a girl your age
  • EXTENSION - Find out which Roman towns have names ending with (Thorpe (Scunthorpe), By (Grimsby)) and make a list and compare where in the country they seem to be....
Hadrian's Wall, England
PRESENTATION SKILLS
Pisa Video Vlog Da Vinci Vlog ​ Mini Europe Vlog
  • Planning opportunities to create a video blog (vlog)
  • Developing a storyboard / script and then developing on presentational skills whilst 'talking to camera'
  • Developing onward usage of each blog with other schools in UK
Pisa, Italy Florence, Italy ​Brussels, Belgium
 POETRY (Couplets)
Autumnal Poetry for World Poetry Day
  • Develop on previous poetry work, by introducing Couplets into Poems
  • Using the theme of Autumn in Alsace, take a nature walk through the woods and collect leaves and photos
  • Find simple series of rhyming words, introduce a rhythm to the poem and complete poem entry for National Poetry Day
Alsace, France

Learn more about us

check out OUR ADVENTURES

Advertisement

Translate our site

Subscribe

see inside our van…

Recent Videos

Loading...

Pin It on Pinterest